Arts & Health - Words for Wellbeing

This post is a signpost. 

I want to try and offer directions to things that relate to the growing "Words for Wellbeing" movement.

Many people believe, and much research has shown, that expressive writing helps us to heal.

Arts and Health is a rich and varied territory and practitioners work creatively in many ways. We use art, music, dance, drama, literature and just about anything else in the vast range of human creativity. Our aim is to help others to express themselves more freely, reach a better understanding of their problems, re-connect with themselves and others and start to feel a greater sense of wellbeing. 

I am a poetry specialist so I use words as my medium, along with other communication essentials such as active listening and kindness. One can never overestimate the value of kindness.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/kindness

Kindness is the name of a remarkable poem by Naomi Shihab Nye and you can follow the link above and take a look.  This is typical of the sort of poem that can be a powerful springboard for discussion and creative writing. It begins: 

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.

Powerful emotions such as anger are often seen as dangerous (which of course they can be) but we are rarely encouraged to express them safely before they become dangerous.  Women in particular are discouraged by social conditioning in the U.K from expressing even the most justifiable anger. 

You may have come across this poem before:

I was angry with my friend

I told my wrath, my wrath did end

I was angry with my foe;

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

Blake's poem talks about the destructive power of unexpressed anger.  It can turn poisonous. 

Anger can turn inwards and lead to depression. Or it can be mis-directed. We shout at our loved ones because we dare not shout at the boss. We suddenly explode at a totally inappropriate moment. 

Poetry at its best is a compressed and richly rewarding form of language that can offer people a way out of the dark wood and back into the light.  When I was going through the Dark Wood I found Seamus Heaney's remarkable translation of the opening of Dante's Inferno to be strangely consoling and cathartic. 

Dante's Inferno Canto I

Translated by Seamus Heaney

In the middle of the journey of our life

I found myself astray in a dark wood

where the straight road had been lost sight of.

How hard it is to say what it was like

in the thick of thickets, in a wood so dense

and gnarled

the very thought of it renews my panic.

It is bitter almost as death itself is bitter.

But to rehearse the good it also brought me

I will speak about the other things I saw there.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita

mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,

ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura

esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte

che nel pensier rinnova la paura!

Tant’è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ ho scorte. 

Again I am drawn to the Blake illustration


I especially like the line, "But to rehearse the good it also brought me I will speak about the other things I saw there".

By reliving, processing and sharing (even if it's just with our private notebook) a distressing experience we somehow begin to feel its pain less sharply.  Pain such as grief may never fully go away, we don't "get over it" but the wound heals and we can find our way out of the Dark Wood.



If you are looking for poetry there are many wonderful resources available thanks to the internet.
poets.org is a US site.  https://www.poets.org

In the UK we have https://www.poetryarchive.org 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org

and there are many others. 

There are many outstanding organisations that support practitioners and help to develop research in this area. 

One of the best is Lapidus International.

https://lapidus.org.uk

 

Lapidus is a membership organisation supporting practitioners, offering professional development and conducting or assisting with research. 

Much of the content is for members only but some information is accessible to all. 

I am also including a few links to articles or threads that have taken my attention in the last few weeks.  Mental health services (and lack of them) and the benefits of the arts for greater wellbeing are very much in the spotlight just now. 

'It's time to recognise the contribution arts can make to health and wellbeing' | Healthcare Professionals Network | The Guardian

https://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/art-boosts-long-term-mental-health-new-study/

http://www.researchintorecovery.com/what-is-recovery-and-wellbeing
https://www.rachel-kelly.net
Rachel Kelly is a writer and campaigner for better understanding and treatment of mental illness. 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/n
ov/01/fairy-stories-folk-tales-climate-change-refugees?CMP=share_btn_fb
The Guardian frequently features the subject of arts and health. 

https://www.brainpickings.org/about/ 
Maria Popova's award-winning blog - a rich source of ideas and references to some of our greatest thinkers, artists and scientists. I find it invaluable. 


MOOC  (Massive Online Open Course):

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/literature
Recommended course on Literature and Mental Health

This is supposed to be a Scottish Poetry Blog - hence ScotPot so I finish with some words that have united complete strangers all around the world at a special moment in time.  

Robert Burns took and polished this traditional song and it has become a universal anthem of good-fellowship. Definitely words for wellbeing.

I'd love to hear any comments/corrections.